The Alps Of Afton

Nothing beats climbing in the Afton Hills. Today, I rode down from Lakeland with Jerry Engen, Lori Belz, John Wyland, Rob Belz and Bill Stuber. The wind was cranking out of the Northwest. When it's windy, the Afton Hills provide plenty of protection. We rode down 21 and went west on Valley Creek. Next, we headed from the bottom to the top of Trading Post. That's a nice warm-up climb. We took County 18 down the hill and into Afton. Don't go that way... The road is getting really bad as you go down into Afton. From there, we rode the backside of the Coulee along the river. That one is really tough. In fact, it's much tougher than the Coulee itself. Rob Belz rode away from the group on that one. Either he's climbing really well or I'm not... After that, it was back to Stagecoach and the big climb to Afton State Park. A right turn on Trading Post after heading west of Afton State Park kept us out of the wind. The short, punchy climb on the south side of Trading Post led to the big descent back to Valley Creek. We took Stagecoach to Indian Trail and then crossed I94 back to Lakeland. The total miles were a little over 33. I rode the Roubaix. Earlier in the day, I started to put the Niner together. I need a few things including a 31.6 seat post, and a different crankset. I didn't realize it but the XT crankset I had was 170mm instead of 175.